At 10:44 AM 3/28/97 -0800, you wrote:
>
>> I still prefer our clean air in Canada and my 1974 MGB without an air pump, a
>> catalist or any smog equipment even if it produces some polution.
>
>You've got a much lower population density there in Canada then we have
here in the US.
>Especially in areas like California or Maryland. Of course your air
pollution is lower
>there! Move all the folks living here in Maryland into your town and your
air is gonna
>stink like hell. Especially if you ignore all the folks being there and
try to pretend
>that it isn't contributing to pollution.
>
I haven't been following this thread too much but as a Canadian I've got to
jump in here.
I live in the Lower Mainland of BC and we no longer have "canadian clean
air". The air polution here is arguably the worst in Canada and, some days,
probably the worst in western North America after LA and SF. We have
stringent emmision standards for all daily drivers in the lower mainland:
tail pipe sniffers, catalytic converter and gas cap inspections. The system
here works very much like what I understand the system in CA does. If you
fail you must spend up to a fixed dollar amount to address the problem, if
you still fail you can get a temporary registration for 3 months. You MUST
get it fixed during that period.
We have very little heavy industry that produces air pollution, water
pollution is a much bigger concern here. We don't burn fossil fuels for
power. Virtually all the air pollution in this area is from vehicle
emmisions. These emmissions are produced in the city and it's adjacent
suburbs and then is carried up the Fraser valley by our famous Pacific
breezes. These emmisions are then concentrated in the Valley by it's
surrounding mountains till they are a grey brown haze, visable for miles,
that hangs over our agricultural area. Because of this I fully support
emmision controls for gross polluters. Both my current daily drivers are
modern vehicles, properly maintained and well within emmision specs. My
MG's are collectors and so are not subject to emmision regs.
We do NOT have under bonnet originality inspections; if the hypothetical `74
B does not have an air pump but is within emmision specs then it'll pass.
As I said before the only inspection is to make sure there's a catalytic
converter (if originally fitted) and to make sure the throat of the gas tank
filler hasn't been enlarged to take leaded gas. Other than that the
deciding factor is what comes out of the tail pipe. To me this makes sense
and, while the $18 annual testing fee pi&%es me right off, the long term
benefit is, I suppose, worth it. It sounds to me that the originality
inspections some of you are subject to is a case of beauracracy run amok. I
too would scream like mad if I had to follow those regs regardless of my
emmision levels.
My too sense ;)
___ \______ Ross MacPherson
/ __ \ __ / /------|) arm@unix.infoserve.net
/ (___)---------/ (___) Vancouver, BC, Canada
1947 MG-TC 3528 1966 MGB-GT
|